Endangered Heneine Palace in Zukak el-Blat Placed on 2016 World Monuments Watch

On October 15th 2015, World Monuments Fund officially announced 50 sites to join the 2016 World Monuments Watch at their press conference in New York.

Following its nomination by Save Beirut Heritage, the remarkable yet endangered

Heneine Palace, in Zukak el-Blat, Beirut, Lebanon, was chosen to join this list, thereby receiving well deserved international recognition - both for its exceptional historical attributes and its unfortunate state of deterioration.

World Monuments Fund is a private nonprofit organization founded in 1965 by individuals concerned about the accelerating destruction of important artistic treasures throughout the world.

In 1996, it launched the World Monuments Watch, a global program that aims to identify imperiled cultural heritage sites and direct financial and

technical support for their preservation.

Save Beirut Heritage, a youth-led heritage NGO, prepared an exhaustive nomination file for the Heneine Palace. Several architects, historians and urban experts contributed to the compilation of the file with their knowledge and expertise.

This initiative was endorsed by the Ministry of Culture, and the Arab Center for Architecture. The ensuing visit from a WMF representative to inspect the site and the discussions among jurors, culminated in the selection of the Heneine Palace for the 2016 Watch.

Built in the 1860s, Heneine is today one of the most exceptional remaining examples of Ottoman-era palace architecture.

Its multiple rooms and receptions halls, vestibules, corridors, staircases and arcaded galleries feature an incredibly lavish and intricate set of decorations. As such, it was up until the civil war, a meeting place for Beirut’s intellectual, artistic and political elite.

It was later abandoned then squatted, and has recently been drastically damaged, endangering its structural integrity.

Inclusion on the 2016 Watch will open many doors to the enduring heritage preservation campaign in Lebanon, as it provides an important opportunity to promote the case of the Heneine Palace locally and internationally. Using

this exceptional support, Save Beirut Heritage will soon start working towards the effective protection of the site.

In collaboration with a panel of experts, a proposal for the Palace’s renovation will be made and the possibility of its development with a civic program will be discussed with all private and public actors. With the assistance of World Monuments Fund, it is hoped to gather around such a project the engagement of all stakeholders – the local community, state and city officials and the palace’s owners.

In this way, Save Beirut Heritage is aiming to save the Heneine Palace

from irreversible decay, but to also make it an example of virtuous and participative development of our common heritage.